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Improving Educational Practices


Teaching and Learning Theories

Learning Theories
Learning Styles
    Learning styles theory
    Based on research demonstrating that as the result of heredity, upbringing, and environmental demands, different individuals perceive and process information differently.
    http://www.funderstanding.com/learning_theory_how6.html

    VARK
    A short, simple inventory that helps students learn more effectively and faculty become more sensitive to the diversity of teaching strategies necessary to reach all students. VARK is free for use in student or faculty development.
    http://www.active-learning-site.com/vark.htm

    Learning Style Inventory
    A statistically reliable and valid assessment tool developed by David A. Kolb, Ph.D. that identifies preferred learning styles and explores the opportunities different styles present. You can order the LSI booklette, user's guide, and transparencies from this site or take the LSI Online for a fee.
    trgmcber.haygroup.com/Products/learning/lsius.htm

Multiple Intelligences
This theory of human intelligence suggests there are at least seven ways that people have of perceiving and understanding the world.
http://www.funderstanding.com/learning_theory_how7.html

How Right Brain/Left Brain Impacts Learning
Experimentation has shown that the two different hemispheres of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking.
http://www.funderstanding.com/learning_theory_how8.html

Top Ten Mistakes in Education
from Engines for Education"hyper-book" written by Roger Schank, Director of The Institute for the Learning Sciences, Northwestern University.
http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/nodes/NODE-283-pg.html

The Acquisition of Knowledge
Cognitive research links the acquisition of new knowledge and specific educational practices.
http://www.utc.arizona.edu/tact1-3.html

How Prior Knowledge Impacts New Learning
Out of five student strategies for learning new material only one resulted in integrating new material with prior knowledge in an accurate and efficient manner.
http://www.utc.arizona.edu/tact2-5.html

Knowledge Restructuring
Four models for helping students access prior knowledge as is necessary to learn new content.
http://www.utc.arizona.edu/tact2-6.html

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The Changing Nature of the Professorate

Learner-Centered Environments in an Electronic InformationAge
Collins (1991) describes a series of shifts in education that put greater emphasis on student activity than on teacher activity.
http://www.utc.arizona.edu/tact3-3.html

The Changing Nature of The Professorate
Menges (1994) outlines specific changes in how professors will work with students as the information-packed environment brought about by computer-based technologies transforms education institutions.
http://www.utc.arizona.edu/tact3-4.html

Peer Collaboration
Excerpt from Making Teaching Community Property, by Barbara Cambrindge, Director, American Association for Higher Education Teaching Initiative.
http://www.aahe.org/pubs/making.htm

Raising The Bar For Student Learning
(Otherwise Entitled "The Education Of A Teacher") by Catherine Helgeland, University of Wisconsin, Manitowoc reprinted in The Teaching Professor.
http://www.magnapubs.com/Newsletters/Ttp/raising3.6.htm

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Education Reform


History of our Current Education System
Funderstanding was founded five years ago to create better learning environments in both the corporate and public education arenas.
http://www.funderstanding.com/history.html

Education Reform
http://www.funderstanding.com/education_reform.html

Engines for Education
A "hyper-book" written by Roger Schank, Director of The Institute for the Learning Sciences, Northwestern University, about what's wrong with the education system, how to reform it, and the role of educational technology in that reform.
http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/index.html

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